How To Get the Creativity Habit in 30 Days

The only way to become consistently creative and to be able to create as freely and enjoyably as possible, is to get the creativity habit.

Just creating once in a while may lead to some satisfying sessions of course. But often when we create in this irregular way, we find most of our time is spent gathering not creating. Gathering our materials, gathering our ideas, gathering ourselves and our confidence to the point where we feel ready to create.

The less often we create, the longer the gathering process takes, and the more frustrated, restricted, and eventually just plain stuck we get.

So how do you develop the creativity habit?

It can’t happen in a couple of days. But give it just 30 and you’ll have in place the foundations for a life of regular, consistent and rewarding creativity.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Day 1. Choose a time to create. You’ll know from previous experiences at what time of day you create most easily, whether it’s early morning, midday or late at night. Make it easy for yourself and choose the time when you’re naturally most creative.
2. Day 2. Choose a minimum time period to create. 15 minutes is a good place to start – enough to get something meaningful done, but not so long it intimidates you. And 15 minutes out of a 24 hour day is barely 1% of the day. We can all afford to devote at least 1% of our day to creating.
3. Day 3. Define a place to create. It’s important to have somewhere you can go and get straight into creating as soon as possible. Remember the gathering we talked about before? Have somewhere set up that keeps this gathering to a minimum, even if it’s just a seat in the corner of a room.
4. Day 4. Prepare your tools and materials. This is the natural extension to Day 3. You’ve prepared your workspace, now make sure any materials and equipment you need are close to hand and ready to use.
5. Day 5. Create! Go to your creative space at your chosen time and create for your minimum time period. What’s most important is not what you create. What’s most important is that you show up. This is essentially what a habit is – showing up regularly, ready to do something without thinking about it.
6. Day 6. Create! Go to your creative space at the same time and create for your minimum time period. Again, showing up is the most important part.
7. Day 7. Create! Go to your creative space at the same time and create for your minimum time period. Are you seeing a pattern here?
8. Day 8 - Day 14. Create! Do the same as Day 7.
9. Day 15. Review and adjust. At this point, 2 weeks in, it’s worth reviewing where you’re up to. What’s working well for you? What’s helping you to show up and create each day, strengthening that creativity habit? What minor adjustments can you make to enable it to be easier for you? Make them, then continue.
10. Day 16 – Day 30 and beyond. Carry on creating each day. When you feel comfortable creating everyday for 15 minutes you can up this to 20, 30, 60 and beyond. An hour of creating is still only a tiny 4% of your day.

Use this technique to get the creativity habit in your creative life.

Make any minor adjustments that will help you be more creative along the way, make it work for you and your life. The only crucial part which you can’t change is showing at the same time each day, and creating for a minimum of 15 minutes.

After 30 days, you’ll have in place a creativity habit that will see you creating consistently for the rest of your life. So carry on for the next 30 days. If you want to create more, simply scale it up to 1 hour, 4 hours, 8 hours, however much you want to each day.

Take action, begin today. The time is right.